Google Apps.

[Emerzen]

I was curious as to what the community opinion of Google's online application suite is (or more broadly online apps in general)?

I've been using Google Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Notes, PageCreator, and Webalbums/Picassa and I've had an great experience. It's nice not to have to worry where the thumb drive is to find that document or to have to add attachments to emails etc... I've liked how they're well integrated w/ one another, snappy, and allow for easy collaboration.

Most importantly, I see this as possibly a huge boon for OpenSource as these apps are OS independent. They run just as well on my home Ubuntu boxes as they do at work where the company runs MS 2000. So, I've been encouraging friends and family to try them as, I hope, if they get use to them a switch to GNU/Linux would be that much simpler.

[karellen]

people (will) use them, but they'll always want to keep an os locally, on their computer. it's a matter of control and feeling secure & private

[smoker]

control and security is improtant for me also, i like my data where i can 'see it' so to speak, and have backups handily available. what happens if google suddenly withdraw the service, or decide to charge, or if their servers are, for whatever reason, hosed?

[Dragonbite]

I like Google's Apps and would like it more with broadband at home ;) but even over dial-up the responsiveness is not bad.

I think that Google's Apps will help OSS in that it will help break the thinking people have been brainwashed with that MS Office and stuff is the only one available. Once they learn they have a choice then some will continue looking at what other choices they have.

The one thing that isn't certain, though, is whether Google will EVER start charging for these. Now, things are honkey-dorey but in 5 or 10 years a lot can change and they are fully in their right to start closing and charging things.

Fortunately this is unlikely, as Microsoft is starting to open up more and more so the chances of Google switching places with Microsoft is rather slim.

[Emerzen]

I agree w/ above concerns about local storage and what do you do if Google is down. However, I've found that Documents, for example, plays very nicely w/ OO. So, if it's an important doc I save it to my PC as in open doc format.

[mohnkern]

I've been working with Google apps for several months, and I think they are great, and I've all but abandoned MS office.


I do however, recommend you keep a backup copy locally, just in case.

I do hear that Google Doc's is moving towards an offline model as well, which should be interesting.

[jputman01]

I use google docs on a regular basis and enjoy them very much, however I always keep a back up copy stored locally and I will not use it for any document that I would be worried about security with. a friend of mine was able to take another friend of mine's password from his cache/cookies and get into all of his google documents, just to show him the vulnerability of storing any personal info on them.

[Dragonbite]

For Gmail, I set it up so when I am using the local client at home I CC: myself at Google. This way I have both received and sent emails on my local machine AND on the Gmail server (which is nicely accessible when not at home).

[Churnd]

I don' t see it affecting anything OSS. Web apps and desktop apps are two different environments. I like being able to use a word processor wherever I am, and I also make sure I download my work to my desktop at home. So, I think they compliment each other very well. As big as Google has been in the OSS movement, I would like to see some sort of integration into OpenOffice. I think they're overdue for an official calendar plugin to Lightning/Thunderbird.

[maniacmusician]

it has nothing to do with open source software. Most of Google's software is just as closed source as Microsofts. Google aps are not open source. But yeah, they are pretty handy. For word processing and stuff, I much prefer www.zoho.com They're way better. But google has great offerings too, like Calendar, Reader, etc.

[Emerzen]

I don' t see it affecting anything OSS. Web apps and desktop apps are two different environments. I like being able to use a word processor wherever I am, and I also make sure I download my work to my desktop at home. So, I think they compliment each other very well. As big as Google has been in the OSS movement, I would like to see some sort of integration into OpenOffice. I think they're overdue for an official calendar plugin to Lightning/Thunderbird.

As an aside, have you tried Sunbird from Mozilla...you can get it as a plug-in for Thunderbird or stand-alone. It's still beta-ish though.